Journalism students credited with suspect’s arrest in Daniel Pearl beheading

An investigation by Georgetown University journalism students helped lead to the Sunday capture in Pakistan of a suspect in the 2002 beheading of Wall Street Journal correspondent Daniel Pearl.

Pearl was kidnapped in Pakistan in January 2002 and his murder was videotaped and posted online.

ABC News reported on “The Pearl Project,” a three and a half year investigation led by Georgetown University professor and friend of Pearl’s, Asra Nomani, and 32 of her students. These amateur investigators followed clues and conducted incredible scientific research from evidence they detected on the video made of Pearl’s murder.

The students used “vein matching” to compare the veins of the killer’s hand from the video to the veins in photographs of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed who confessed in 2007 to beheading Pearl after being water boarded, the report said.

Mohammed is “currently in U.S. custody at Guantanamo Bay,” ABC reported, but “has never been charged with the crime.”

Pakistan officials, though, arrested Qari Abdul Hayee, “Sunday in a targeted operation by the Pakistani Rangers, a paramilitary unit, in the city of Karachi, Pakistan,” the article said.

According to ABC News:

Pakistani officials said they do not believe Hayee carried out the murder, but said he was “privy to the whole situation” and that he was part of the terror group that carried out the crime.

In 2011 a man named Abdul Hayee was identified as one of 27 people allegedly involved in Pearl’s kidnapping in a special investigation by Georgetown University called The Pearl Project.

Watch the ABC News report on these tenacious journalism students here:Unfortunately your browser does not support IFrames.

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"And though she be but little, she is fierce." And fun! This conservative-minded political junkie, mom of three, dancer and one-time NFL cheerleader holds a bachelor of arts degree in political science. [email protected] Twitter: @JaneenBPR

Thank you, Janeen, for this blog. With Barbara Feinman Todd, I led the project with which these amazing students investigated Danny's murder. To some of the readers' comments, it was old school hard work that allowed us to establish the identities of the 27 men involved in Danny's kidnapping and murder. Abdul Hayee was allegedly one of those men, and he was one of the 14 we identified free on the streets of Pakistan.

Yours is one of few articles that takes important notice of the fact that he was not involved in the murder, but he was allegedly privy to the operation, as you quote Pakistani officials saying.

Thank you again for drawing attention to Danny's important story and the truth of men still not charged in his kidnapping and murder.

Thank you for your investigation into this murder and finally solving it. Not surprised that it was the work of G'town students and faculty who accomplished this. All of the brightest and most hard-working people I schooled with were at G'town.

It's a Catholic university founded by the Jesuits (Pope Francis is a Jesuit) in 1789 so it has a firm philosophical base in Christianity…Graduates include lefties like Pres. Clinton and Senator Durbin as well as conservatives like Senator Dr. Barasso and Frank Gaffney (Center for Security Policy)…